Thursday, March 6, 2008

Leading upto his name and fame in the world of stocks legendary investor Warren Buffett has overtaken software czar Bill Gates as well as Mexican Tycoon Carlos Slim Helu to become the world's richest person, as per Forbes' annual list of billionaires.

These three are followed by NRI steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani at fourth, fifth and sixth position.

Another Indian businessman K P Singh has occupied the eighth position.

In terms of wealth created in the last one year, Anil Ambani has come on top, followed by his elder brother Mukesh Ambani.

Buffett has been ranked at the top with a net worth of 62 billion dollars, higher than Slim's 60 billion dollars and Gates' 58 billion dollars.

The other Indians who have made it to the Forbes list include Ravi and Sashi Ruia and Azim Premji, who have occupied the 43rd and 30th spot with net worth of 15 billion dollars and 12.7 billion dollars respectively.

Besides, the list also has Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Rahul Bajaj, each with a worth of one billion dolllar.

Buffett, the 77-year-old chief of the Berkshire Hathaway holding company, saw his wealth jump from USD 52 billion last year to USD 62 billion, pushing Microsoft co-founder Gates into third position after 13 years at the top.

Mexico's telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu grabbed second place with a tidy nest egg of USD 60 billion, up from USD 49 billion last year.

Buffett, who announced in 2006 he was giving the majority of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, saw his wealth spike mostly due to the rising value of his Berkshire Hathaway stock.

In total, this year's list sees 1,125 people around the world making the billionaire's list, up from 946 last year.

Their total net worth stands at USD 4.4 trillion, up from USD 3.5 trillion in 2007.

By nationality, the United States still easily led the rankings with 469 billionaires up from 415 last year, but Russia replaced Germany as the second placed country with 87 billionaires.

Third-placed India saw the number of its super-rich jump to 53 entries on the list -- four of them in the top 10 -- although China and Hong Kong if taken together would overtake it, with 42 and 26 billionaires respectively.

Japan, although still the second largest economy in the world, saw its number of billionaires trailing at 24 -- overtaken by Turkey, which this year saw its number of mega-tycoons on the list jump from 22 in 2007 to 35.

Following is the list of billionaires who have Indian citizenship or are residents of India, as complied by the Forbes Magazine.